I just started reading ITIL Service Operations official book (2011) edition and it states in Foreword that:-

" Business users and customers interact directly with the operational services and any problems here can have a direct impact on their perception of your business and ultimately to your reputation. In that respect service operation is the most visible part of the service lifecycle. However, it is important that service operation does not drive the lifecycle. Good operational services have been through the stages of strategy, design and transition, and have captured the appropriate metrics in order to maintain the levels of service required."

I could not understand "service operation does not drive the lifecycle" part even in the context of the whole paragraph. Could someone explain this a bit. Any help would be appreciated.[/b]

You have a bar that sells as part - pizzas, burgers.
Your business strategy is that the bar upsells the food and the restaurant upsells the drinks.

Operations is only concerned with making sure that

the staff in the bar can make & serve drinks and send the food orders to the kitchen from the bar.
the staff in the kitchen make the food that has been ordered and keep the cutlery availble for the customers
the staff in the restaurant take food and drink orders.

You after 3 or 4 years decide that instead of serving only bottled beers and spirits, you want to add 'speciality draft micro brewery beers'

That is the strategy.
The design is what speciality beers, how much, what needs changing in the kitchen to match / complement the food, what tech is needed to serve the draft beers - taps, kegs, glasses, wash area; what skills and knowledge the staff need to upsell these; what marketing is needed
The transition is getting the stuff in bar set up, menus delivered, knowledge transferred to staff etc
The Operations once trained now upsell and serve beer.

Thanks for the explianation John, much appreciated. I failed to comprehend that the statement refers to ITSM Lifecycle.

No, I don't have other books. Most of my work exp. is in Incident and Problem Management hence though of starting reading Service Operations. I plan to start Service Transition once Service Operations is finished.